Basic Summary of Benchmark: The CEC demonstrates to teachers how to use research-based intervention to personalize lessons more efficiently. It also allows teachers to learn how to keep a more intense watch on students’ progress, as well as use techniques that meet the needs of individual students. Also, the CEC is fighting for significant changes to improve the No Child Left Behind act. Such changes would include: better assessment systems that measure the achievements of all children, more accountability systems that reward quality schools for their achievements. And, lend for the improvement of the performance of schools with lower achievement records. Hp[efully this would lend to employing better prepared, more diverse, as well as successful educators. It also hopes to be able to give funding to better help schools.

Key Manifestations:

Why/How a Benchmark: The CEC provides Response to Intervention workshops. The Council for Exceptional Children aims to improve educational opportunities for students who are at either end of the spectrum: gifted or suffer from a learning disability. The fact is that for every hundred dollars spent on education, only three of those cents goes toward the education of accelerated students and programs to aid them. The feelings of the CEC is that there are too many students who are either behind the learning curve or who aren’t given the opportunity to work towards their full potential. They speak out against and try to improve upon government policies on all levels that they feel may in some way hinder the students’ potential.